Stop production in bilingual and second language-learning children

Abstract

This study examined stops produced by 7 year-old Korean-English bilingual (KEB) children and age-equivalent Korean children who had learned English as a second language (L2) in order to investigate how duration of exposure affects the PHONETIC systems of their two languages. A total of 60 children participated (15 per group; monolingual English, monolingual Korean, KEB and L2 children). Word-initial VOT and f0 values in the following vowel were measured in both languages. Comparison of English and Korean stops produced by monolingual children showed that the two English (voiced and voiceless) and three Korean (fortis, lenis, & aspirated) stop types were fully distinguished. Like the monolinguals, KEB children produced English and Korean stops distinctively, indicating that they possess two separate stop systems. But while L2-learning children distinguished English voiced from Korean fortis, and English voiceless from Korean lenis, they produced English voiceless and Korean aspirated stops similarly. Compared to adult Korean L2 learners who did not distinguish English voiced from Korean fortis (Kang and Guion, 2006), the results here suggest that young L2 children express more sophisticated phonetic categories than do adult L2 learners. [Funded by NICHD (RHD061527A).]